About me

Welcome! I'm a newlywed who started this blog to document the planning of our September 2010 wedding, and ended up addicted to blogging! Follow our journey through life as we try to find the way to our "perfect" marriage. Happy reading!
You can contact me at: chocolateloversconfessions[@]gmail[dot]com

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Friday, October 30, 2009

Why do people film their wedding? I mean, it's not like you'll sit there and watch it over and over again is it? Chocolate Lover and I aren't too big on filming stuff to begin with, hence my questioning of the practice. We don't even buy DVD's or hold on to DVR recordings. I think that once you watch a movie that's it! If you are desperate to watch it again I'm sure it can be found somewhere so what's the point of spending money on collectibles? Then again, I wouldn't mind having a copy of the Shawshank Redemption, so from that point of view if something is important enough or you like it that much, then it's worth having.

So for our wedding, although we are not going nuts on videography (we focussed more of our resources on photography), we will still hire a videographer to capture the raw footage of everything that went on. Then the thought is to have friends and family film their own vingettes using digital cameras and collect all of that footage onto iMovie on a Mac so that we can create a good, but FREE, 5 minute highlight video. We'll be asking the videographer to setup an additional camera on a tripod filming us from the "viewer's" angle so that our guests sitting outside the small church of Aphrodite Hills can watch what's going on inside the church through either two LCD screens mounted on the wall of the church or on a projector screen. We haven't figured out all the details yet...

At the end of the day, your wedding day is important enough that you don't want to regret not having done something after the fact. And with that premise in mind, we will be recording it live from Aphrodite Hills on September 25, 2010.

Until next Friday, this is Mr. Milk signing off.

P.S. Why do we still say "film" when everything nowadays is digital? I guess will be "diggin" our wedding day :o)

Thursday, October 29, 2009

So the other day I took a raincheck on writing 10 interesting things about me when I received the Sugar Doll award. Its time to deliver. Not sure if it will be interesting to you, but here goes:

I have lived on 3 continents and each place feels like home.

Mr. Milk proposed Christmas morning and I was totally clueless about what was about to happen (some of you may know that already).

I have something chocolatey every day (surprise surprise)!

We recently started ballroom dance classes at our community center and I have trouble being led!

I would love to have a dog or two but can't imagine putting them on the long-ass plane ride to Cyprus if we decide to move back. I also can't imagine leaving them behind. Sigh

I love pasta and could never do the no carb thing (What are these people thinking! No offence).

I love receiving things in the mail (non-bill related obviously). Thanks to online shopping I can still experience that!

I hate it when people are inconsiderate and judgmental. Its one of the few things that makes me really angry

Almost there... I am addicted to TV (yes I make a great couch potato!). Grey's Anatomy, Oprah, DWTS, you name it, I watch it. Clearly I would go nuts without the DVR!

And last but by no means least...Well... Lets see what Mr. Milk has to say. He's coming through the door right now...Come on hon the ladies are waiting... "She's always right" (I swear no coaching was involved!)

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I must admit that before all the wedding planning and blogging I had no idea what Etsy was. After seeing it on blog after blog, I thought it was about time I found out. What a great site! There are so many things that I like and have added to my favorites. And just by browsing I've gotten several ideas for gifts.

Well the other day I made my first purchase! So exciting! This is what I bought...

A monogram stamp from Modern Art Stamps. Obviously we are getting it with our initials and wedding date, but what's got us excited about this simple stamp is that its in the font we are using to design our invitations and monogram. Coincidentally!

The stamp was cheap, mainly because it wasn't mounted. We figured we could do that. It will take 2-4 weeks for us to get it but I couldn't wait that long to post about it. More to come when its here. Next stop...inks!

Friday, October 23, 2009

We've finally managed to get a working copy of Adobe Creative Suite 4 on my Mac. It took a while due to some ridiculous error claiming that the software could not be licensed on my computer. Anyways, that's a different story. Chocolate Lover and I felt that the most efficient way of printing our invites would be by designing them ourselves (since I know how to use desktop publishing software) and by using a printing company that I hire quite frequently at work.

Now we are in colour heaven, or hell, depending on how you look at things. For those who don't know much about colours, what you see is NOT what you get, as CL quickly realized. just because you think you found the perfect teal on the screen it doesn't mean that when it's printed it'll look exactly like that. After a quick colour 101 with CL, we are now looking at the proper Pantone colours, coated or uncoated depending on the printing surface, and the right CMYK readings so that our invites look as good on paper as they do on screen. The only thing we are left battling now is the Greek letter for 'P', otherwise known as the numeric 3.14 or 'pi', which is my initial. We want to use that for the Greek invites but unfortunately the script we have for our monogram does not come in Greek.

I'll update you on the developments in a later post. For now, I need to get back to creating my own font so that I can print my name in it's proper Greek spelling rather than have our Greek guests think that my name starts with an 'R' (the Greek letter for what looks like the English 'P'). Or maybe I should really change my name to Mr. Milk....

Thursday, October 22, 2009

So it occurred to me the other day that I haven't really talked about our reception. While the ceremony and dinner here discussed in a previous post I failed to mention that our reception will be on a totally different day!

This is for several reasons. To begin with we want to be able to enjoy our ceremony and dinner with our close friends and family. This will hopefully allow us to spend enough time with the people that are special to us and who potentially travelled hundreds of mile to be with us on our day.

Another reason involves the culture and size of Cyprus. We are basically a dot on the map. Unless you know what you are looking for, you will most likely miss this lil' island. Due to its size, it's easy to imagine that between our two families, we know a lot of people. The only thing I guess I can equate it to in terms of North America is living in a small town and knowing more or less everyone. But on a bigger scale.

Our parents have people they want to invite but not necessarily people Mr. Milk and I know or are close to. Having the reception on a different day will allow our parents to invite the people who are closer to them. While Mr. Milk and I were ok with missing this step completely, we realized that it is important to both our parents to share their kids joy with their friends and colleagues. My dad and his mom initially did not like the idea of having the reception on a different day. My mom and his dad thought it was a great idea. Go figure. Anyway, the reception will be at a different venue altogether, somewhere cheaper, and will be on a weekday, I think it's a Wednesday. We came to realize that one of the issues people complain about face in Cyprus, is the huge number of weddings they have to go to, starting from May and probably going through all the way to November. Sometimes several Saturdays are taken up by weddings. In a row! And these can be weddings that include THOUSANDS of people. No joke! It's no coincidence the movie was called My Big Fat Greek Wedding! So we thought having a cocktail reception during the week would be appreciated by most of these guest who are coming to support our marriage, but mostly our parents. We will be leaving their weekend untouched.

Since our wedding venue is a little out of the way by Cyprus standards (if someone here heard Cypriots complaining about distance they would just laugh at them!), the second venue is in a more convenient location in the center of the capital city, Nicosia. We came to realize that a large majority of our guests, for both the dinner and the reception, reside in Nicosia. Around 80 to 90% if I had to guesstimate. So we also wanted to make it a little easier for these guests to get to our reception, which will only last a few hours.

As you may have figured out, culturally, family is very important to us. Not that it isn't to people anywhere else in the world, but I think we are more inclined to take our parents desires and wishes into account. Initially it was difficult for both Mr. Milk and I. We are not what we would refer to as traditional Cypriots by any means. He has lived in Canada for the last 10 years and I was in San Francisco for the last 5. Not to mention that I grew up in Saudi Arabia and only moved to Cyprus when I was 14. So no, not traditional. We were gung ho on having our wedding the way WE wanted it. But we realized that this went beyond our little worlds and that there were elements of us getting married that were important to our parents, that they took pride in, and I think, to some degree, they would have been hurt if we just went about our business and didn't take into account the things that were important to them.

The resolution came in the reception. The way we see it, our wedding day, the day of our ceremony and dinner, is OUR day. That day will be geared towards what we want. With the people we want, and the favors we want and so on. The reception is more about our parents and giving them the opportunity to celebrate our marriage in a way that makes them happy. Not that they aren't happy about the wedding day. They most definitely are. Its more about being proud of their kids and sharing that with their group of people. While it took a while to get here, and we are still working out the details for the reception venue, I think all parties involved are happy with the final decisions. And the best part? I get to wear my wedding dress twice! After all, this is all about the bride... ;o)

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

This past Wednesday, I decided to have a "me" day. I indulged in activities that I enjoy and generally had a girly day. One of the things I did was bake. Using chocolate of course! So I thought I'd share my creation with you. I found the recipe in the book Bittersweet by Alice Medrich. It was given to me as a gift by my chocoholic friend and I love it. There are some amazing recipes in it. This recipe asks for a 91/2 inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom.

It is worth investing in one of these (can find one for $10-15) if you plan on making this often as it makes it easy to remove the tart once its baked. Otherwise just make it in whatever round pan you have. The first piece will probably be difficult to remove but you should be ok after that. So lets begin:

Mix the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl to make the crust. Add the flour and mix till well blended. The dough may seem too soft but this is fine. Press it evenly and thinly onto the bottom and sides of the pan

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the crust is a golden brown

In the meantime start to make the filling. Place the butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the mixture is blended, smooth and begins to simmer around the edges. Remove from heat and stir in the instant espresso or coffee powder and vanilla.

Just before the crust is ready, whisk the egg thoroughly into the hot choclate mixture. Pour the filling into the hot crust.

Place the pan into the over and turn the oven off (yes, off). Leave the tart in the over till it quivers like Jell-O. The recipe says this will take 10 to 12 minutes but I've found that it needs more like 20 minutes.

Let cool on a rack and serve at room temperature.

Yummmm

The coffee flavor is pretty mild in this tart so its great for those who don't particularly like coffee. Enjoy!

You gals need to pop over to her blog All Consumed Bride and check out this post. Its a video of how one couple chose to "walk" down the aisle. Apparently it's been out for a while but clueless me only just saw it. It's hilarious, original, and touching.

I'd also encourage you to follow her blog. She has great ideas, is super creative, and very supportive!

Monday, October 19, 2009

When we were first engaged I scoured magazines and books to get ideas for wedding decor, planning, flowers and what not, being that this was new and all. While in a bookstore, I came across Colin Cowie's book Wedding Chic. I remember seeing him for the first time on Oprah and was stunned, jaw-on-the-floor impressed by the beautifully gorgeous weddings he created. Well then reality set in, and I realized there was no way (not only on earth but the universe), that we were ever ever ever going to afford one of his creations.

So I figured the only way I was going to get remotely close to having even a suggestion from the famous Colin Cowie regarding my wedding, was to buy his book. So I did. And I thought I would share some of my favorite images with you

And these are just the ones I could find on his website! The book is full of beautiful photographs of decor, cakes, centerpieces, paper goods, food and much more. I haven't bought another book since purchasing this one, and I feel like between it and the internet, I have enough to get me going.

"Send us an email to VIP@traylorpapers.com with your name & address and we'll send you a free customized card with your name. Tell us your favorite colors and/or style (i.e., whimsical, classic, girly, etc.) and we'll try to make you a match ;) BONUS: post this offer on your blog or wall, send us a link and we'll send you a few extra! Good thru 10/28/09!"

Friday, October 16, 2009

Getting in shape. It feels like I'm living through the New Year's resolution quandary, but instead of for a couple of hours prior to midnight this time it's lasting 365/24/7. Not that it's becoming an obsession or anything, but I suppose if there's one thing to motivate one to be in the best shape of their life, why not your wedding day? Of course I feel that I am already in a decent shape (if we excuse the fact that I bought my 6-pack from Costco), but what the heck, it would be nice to find a way to get addicted to going to the gym on a daily basis. My issue is routine, or lack thereof. I hate going to the gym at different times each day depending on my other commitments because without the structure of consistency the first thing that I pass on is, you guessed it: the gym. I'm thinking of waking up early and hitting the gym for an hour before I go to work but then Chocolate Lover (wow, that name never sounded so contradictory to the post topic) and I won't be able to go together. Good luck getting her to wake up at 6 to go with me!
So we bought bicycles. And then we put them in storage. And now it's rainy season so we won't be taking them out of storage anytime soon. Oh, and the gym is approximately 22 steps away from our door, so no excuses there. CL and I are not really the gym types. Maybe that's the problem. We like fun exercise but what's there to do in the winter? Any ideas anyone?

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

This came to me in an email from my Chocoholic Friend. Apparently this is an actual letter from an Austin woman sent to Proctor and Gamble regarding their feminine products. It was also supposed to be in PC magazine's 2007 editors' choice for best webmail-award-winning letter. Don't know if this is all true but the letter is hilarious nonetheless, and I thought it would be an entertaining midweek post (particularly since I am "stuck" at home studying!).

I have been a loyal user of your 'Always' maxi pads for over 20 years and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core or Dri-Weave absorbency, I'd probably never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I'd certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach in tight, white shorts. But my favorite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only company smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants.

Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? I'm guessing you haven't. Well, my time of the month is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now, my body will adjust and I'll be transformed into what my husband likes to call 'an inbred hillbilly with knife skills.' Isn't the human body amazing?

As Brand Manager in the Feminine-Hygiene Division, you've no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customer's monthly visits from 'Aunt Flo'. Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying jags, and out-of-control behavior. You surely realize it's a tough time for most women.

The point is, sir, you of all people must realize that America is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants... Which brings me to the reason for my letter. Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: 'Have a Happy Period.'

Are you f------ kidding me? What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness, is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James? FYI, unless you're some kind of sick S&M freak, there will never be anything 'happy' about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don't march down to the local Walgreen's armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory.

For the love of God, pull your head out, man! If you have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn't it make more sense to say something that's actually pertinent, like 'Put down the Hammer' or 'Vehicular Manslaughter is Wrong',

Sir, please inform your Accounting Department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending bullshit. And that's a promise I will keep.

So needless to say my week started off with a bang! I was the lucky and very honored recipient of not one, not two, not three, but FOUR blog awards! Thanks need to go out to my friends Stacey at You Can't Take it With You and Maria at The Carosello Wedding, as well as to a new blogger friend Lindsay at Lindsay Maddox. I encourage you to check out these ladies blogs! I do on a regular basis!

So part of the Over the Top award is to answer these questions using only one word:

Friday, October 9, 2009

Someone once said that it's easier to find a wife in Cyprus than it is to book a venue. Laugh all you want but our experience this past August confirms that! Chocolate Lover, in an earlier post, discussed our frustration with the fact that EVERYTHING was booked two years in advance! Regardless, we were still able to secure a beautiful venue and we are both super excited about it. I thought I'd provide everyone with more information on the wedding business in Cyprus and some of the traditions that have carried through to today.
Back in the day, weddings in Cyprus villages used to go on for three days. One could write a book about the hundreds of traditions and rituals that took place, from the preparation of the bride and groom's bed to the parading around the village. Quite a few of these traditions remain to date, albeit in a more modern form. To give you an example, the mentality behind holding a village wedding stemmed from the belief that the community should pull their resources together and help a young couple to a healthy start of their marriage. Although I've never had the privilege of observing an authentic Cypriot wedding, I am assuming that the general buzz in the village every time someone got married can be described to the 4th of July celebrations in the United States, only extending from the 3rd to the 5th!

Pulling their resources together. What does that mean? The barber would give the groom his haircut and the best man would shave him. The village seamstress would help with the sewing of the bedspread and the couple's clothes. Everyone would pitch-in one way or another and the village musicians (a violinist and a "laoutaris" [traditional Cypriot instrument resembling the Greek bouzouki, but not quite]) would play all sorts of songs, each one appropriate to the individual ritual. But the biggest deed of kindness came the night of the wedding when the couple danced for the first time. The entire village (and I mean hundreds of people) would pin money (the highest currency bill of the time) on the bride and groom, as a way of generating enough wealth for the newlyweds to invest in their household (the actual house was usually courtesy of the bride's parents) and their soon to be born children.

Well, to no one's surprise, if there is one tradition that has been preserved, it's definitely the money dance. These days however instead of dancing around in a sea of Euros, most people bring their "contribution" in a smal 2"x3" evnvelope along with their business card. The exchange happens as the couple greets their guests at a reception style venue, and typically the best man, hiding behing the couple, grabs the little envelopes and throws them in the money bag. If you find this very shocking then brace yourself. I just discovered that a particular bank is now offering an online money transfer specifically tailored to wedding gifts!

So to those wondering, no, there is no registry system in Cyprus yet. In typical Chocolate Lover fashion I shall pass the question to you: Do you prefer cash or gifts by registry?

As many of you already know, cutting back on the guest list is probably one of the most challenging tasks when planning a wedding. We have around 350 people on our dinner list! We thought it would be around 300, maybe less, but now that we are over that by far, we need to start cutting people back.

Mr. Milk is a laid-back, happy-go-lucky guy. So when he talks about the wedding with people, and they ask questions like "can i bring my brother along?" he is easily and naturally inclined to say "yeah, sure." Although we've discussed this already, I wanted to see where others stand on this topic.

We have been thinking to eliminate the "plus one" in our invitations, and restrict it to people who are in long-term/committed relationships. Granted more thought will be put into it at the time the invitations need to be sent out - don't want someone who doesn't know anyone else having to show up completely alone - but we also don't want to have a double standard. Know what I mean? We are concerned about costs and also don't want to have to remove someone from the guest list who is important to us, for someone that we don't even know.

I know there is no straightforward answer. Just wanted to see what you gals have thought about/done and any other suggestions.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Mr. Milk and I spent a lot of the weekend talking about wedding invitations. We've decided that we want pocket-fold invitations in pearl and aqua metallic paper. We are narrowing down our colors, but are getting stuck on the color of the ink. I initially liked a sand/goldish color but then Mr. Milk suggested silver. Now I'm in a whirlwind of confusion as I can't decide. I like both!

So here are a couple of pics of a quick sample I literally threw together just to get an idea/comparison. I was thinking about bridesmaids too (obviously) hense the content!

In all honesty I have never been a gold-type-of-person, but for some reason I am attracted to it now! Go figure. I thought I would throw my dilemma out to you gals for some feedback. What do you think? Which do you prefer? Any other suggestions? Help!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Back in July Mr. Milk and I decided that we would take four days moving from San Francisco to Vancouver and drive up the West Coast. We love road trips, and other than the occasional cranky mood due to lack of good sleep or need for caffeine, we get along brilliantly on them. It was a beautiful trip and I recommend it highly to anyone interested. The CA coast is beautiful but the Oregon Coast is beautiful beautiful!

But since this was going to be a long trip, we thought we should have some options of things to do while in the car, other than the typical 20 questions. So we found these in a bookstore:

There are a bunch of multiple choice questions that you need to answer for your partner, and hopefully get most right! It was silly fun and we have pulled these out a couple of times since our trip and "played" with other couples too (Mr. Milk thinks it was more fun that way).

Monday, October 5, 2009

What a way to start the week! I just received my very first blogger award courtesy of Stacey Marie from You Can't Take It With You (check out her blog)!

What I have to do:

Post 7 facts about myself

Pass this award on to 7 amazing bloggers

So here it goes!

I love dogs! I could have a farm of them and be completely content! I have 2 back in Cyprus and miss them dearly!

I am a food/dessert snob. I eat lunch and am planning what to eat for dinner. But it has to be good food/dessert. No Hershey's Kisses for this one. I could hang out in a supermarket for hours (as Mr. Milk can attest)!

I lived in San Francisco for 5 years and never went to Alcatraz.

I grew up in Saudi Arabia. Although I haven't been back in over a decade, I would really love to visit again sometime soon. I'm sure its very different now...

I love shoes! Which girl doesn't! ;-) If heels weren't so bad for you I'd wear them all the time!

I claim to be a PC but secretly use my fiances Mac all the time! (even right now!)

Hmmm...no. 7... Lets see... We did not want to get married on the ever popular 10/10/10 because that will be my 30th birthday! And I didn't want to be getting one less present ;)

I am passing this award on to the following people for their beautiful blogs, thoughtful posts, support, and inspiration...

Friday, October 2, 2009

Since Chocolate Lover moved to Vancouver to be with me things have been different. We are finally together after so many years of long distance, and funnily enough, since she's come here we've done nothing else but travel! Well, let's pause for a second because this is my time to speak my mind. I get the Friday guest post on what seems to be my fiance's newfound hobby: blogging about the wedding, thereby effectively documenting every-step-of-the-way-to-the-alter!

I'll dedicate this week's post on praising Chocolate Lover on how fast she's learned to blog. From the two of us, I've definitely been the one to claim the techno-geek title. Things are different now. She's learned how to adapt a template by rationalizing HTML coding, how to customize her blog's layout, and how to participate in the blogosphere in order to drive traffic to her blog. I'm beginning to feel that I'll be dating a celebrity soon, and frankly, although some people may find blogging to be an odd hobby, I think it's one of the coolest, most 'with the times' thing anyone could do. So if Chocolate Lover's newfound 'obsession' isn't proof of her adapting to my techno-geek personality, then I don't know what is!

To whomever is reading this, I promise I'll keep my guest posts related only to the theme of this blog, and that I'll keep the techno-talk for my blog (hint, hint) [What? Can't a guy put a plug in for his blog? (still a work in progress by the way)].

Thursday, October 1, 2009

In Cyprus there is a traditional wedding favor known as lokoumia or kourambiedes, aka Mexican Wedding Cookies and Russian Tea Cakes! Who knew! This little cookie transcends borders, cultures, traditions! The only problem? We don't like them :)

A quick google search revealed that these little gems were reserved for special occasions, such as weddings, because at the time, the ingredients were expensive - butter, sugar, nuts. Also, the nuts were supposed to represent the fertility while the sugar symbolizes the sweet life journey the couple are embarking on.

While these are the most commonly given favor in Cyprus, and to some extent, the expected favor, most people don't eat them. There have been many a time that both our parents fridges have had 5-6 on these babies just sitting there. No one wants to eat them. Especially if it's into wedding season and they've had a few already. My mom places them between jars on the fridge door so that the jars don't move and fall out! Ironically, when discussing this with our parents, both were in favor of having these favors (!) while admitting that they don't eat them either! This was very amusing for Mr. Milk and I.

So we want to have something that is more representative of us. We do want to stick to something edible as we feel that many favors are tossed aside or guests don't have much use for them. What our favors will be is still to be determined. Thoughts include american-style chocolate chip cookies symbolizing my love for chocolate and my time spent in the USofA, or the very Canadian maple syrup representing Mr. Milk's time in Canada. We shall see...